"Lethal danger to a mum-to-be and her baby"

By now the world knows that Prince William and wife Kate are expecting a baby.

Prince Charles has spoken about him being a grandfather to the child. The media has reported it as such, rather than referring to the couple  expecting a 'clump of cells', or a 'potential life', formulations we only ever hear from pro-abortion types busy trying to justify and rationalise the killing of innocent children.

Meanwhile the rest of the world breaths easy calling a baby 'a baby', because that is exactly who is in the womb, a baby. I was pleasantly surprised to find another example of the media thinking and writing like normal people rather than sophists, when I picked up The Independent on Sunday (a broadly left wing British newspaper).

Refuge charity

Each year the paper picks a charity to raise money for at Christmas time. As part of its charity campaign it ran an article titled "When pregnancy spells lethal danger to a mum-to-be and her baby" by journalist Emily Dugan, about this year's chosen charity, Refuge, which helps pregnant mothers in domestic violence situations in the UK.

Sadly, abortion supporters argue for abortion as a solution to domestic abuse situations. Instead, abortion can be used as a form of punishment on the woman by her partner, and used to cover up situations of abuse and allow them to continue, sometimes helped by abortion groups not reporting cases of statutory rape, for example.

Studies in 2009 and 2010 by Dr. Priscilla Coleman suggest that abortion can lead to an increase in domestic violence compared to giving birth to the child. Pregnant mothers in domestic violence situations need proper help, not abortion. What struck me was the wording used in the article, which is uncontroversial and straightforward, yet would be dismissed as anti-abortion propaganda by pro-abortion groups:

Beth was eight weeks pregnant last year when her boyfriend, Jason, killed their unborn child.

The hours that followed are now a blur. One minute she was lying on the floor wondering if she and the baby were about to die, and the next she was in a hospital bed and Jason was in a police cell.

Beth's horror story is all too common. Expecting a child is ordinarily seen as a time of happiness and intimacy for a couple. But 30 per cent of domestic violence cases begin or get worse during pregnancy. There is evidence to suggest it could be the biggest killer of unborn babies in the UK.

 In my 30 years working in this area I've seen some appalling cases, including a woman six-and-a-half months pregnant who had been kicked so repeatedly in the abdomen that her baby was stillborn. Another woman had a baby who was born with three fractured limbs."

Beth holds Ben closer. "At first, they couldn't find the heartbeat and I thought I'd lost him. It's the worst feeling you could ever have - trying to find your baby's heartbeat and not knowing if he's alive or not. I had a fist mark on the side of my belly, marks all up the side of my back and arms but I was only worried about the baby."

Teaching health workers to detect the signs of domestic violence can save the lives of mothers and babies. NHS guidelines say midwives and other health workers are supposed to ask expectant mothers about domestic abuse as a matter of routine.